Youngstown State's volleyball team began its second preseason under head coach Riley Jarrett on Sunday at Zidian Family Arena as it prepares for the 2025 campaign.
The team practiced as a full group for just over two hours on Sunday morning on Rosselli Court. Monday was a full day that began with a morning lifting session, continued with position-specific workouts, and concluded with a team practice in the afternoon.
The Penguins will hold a Red vs. White intrasquad scrimmage on Friday, and they'll play an exhibition match at Bowling Green on Aug. 23 as a final tune-up for nonconference play. The season will begin on Aug. 29 with Youngstown State hosting Canisius, Duquesne and Mercyhurst for the YSU Invitational, presented by Mercy Health.
Youngstown State has 17 student-athletes on its 2025 roster, with 10 of them new players to the program. The program is led by a trio of seniors: Bianca Giglio, Abbie Householder and Julia Sell. Householder and Sell are in their fourth years as Penguins, while Giglio is entering her second season at YSU after transferring from Marshall.
Householder was an All-Horizon League Second Team honoree in 2024 after ranking second in the conference in both kills and points per set. She was the only player in the Horizon League to rank among the top 12 in both kills and digs per set, and she is just the second Penguin in the last 25 years to average at least 3.0 in both categories
There are four additional players returning from 2024, including juniors Gabriela Machin and Maria Insana and sophomores Teagan Ng and Juliana Rivera. Sophomore Taya Nordmann and redshirt freshmen Niyah Lester and Ava Prince joined the program via the transfer portal. True freshmen for 2025 are Kameron Blizniak, Kennedy Dawson, Layne Graffice, Brie Habeeb, Isabelle Henry, Presley Stokes and Ava Stratton.
